Furry Road – The Troll’s Path to Glory

Jason here to talk about a Space Wolves list that is sure to cause some rage quit table flips in the near future.

This list is brought to us by long-time listener, part time stalker, and all night lover Shayne Rucki. I recently tried my Adepticon list against Shayne and was completely awestruck by the shear troll-i-ness of his list. My first turn I dropped 8 Wyvern blasts, 20 Autocannon shots, 30 Vulcan Mega Bolter shots, 2 Lascannons and 3 twin linked Heavy Bolter shots at his main Deathstar unit and only managed to kill two Fenrisian Wolves. OUCH!

Iron Priest allows each Herald the ignore the first wound they take in ANY phase. He also packs a punch in combat and takes the Cyberwolves that take wounds.

The Heralds stick close to the Wolf Guard Battle Leader with Storm Shield in the front of the Wolfstar and take Look Out Sir wounds with their 2+ armor save and 6+ Feel No Pain. If they fail their first wound they ignore it due to the Formation’s special rule, including wounds from a D slap.

Company of the Great Wolf Detachment

Gives the Wolfstar it’s close combat bite. Two Wolf Guard Battle Leaders on Thunderwolves with Storm Shields and Power Fists not only provide a serious amount of S10 attacks but also provide the 4 Fenrisian Wolves give the unit the majority armor save 6+ which is great anti-grav weaponry defense. One of these bad boys hangs in the back of the Herald unit to tank wounds from Drop Pod melta the other hangs in the front to either Look Out Sir to the wound ignoring 2+ armor saved Heralds or tank wounds with his Storm Shield.

Provides another nut crusher unit in the Thunderwolf Cavalry that provide another hard hitting, tough to take out unit that will quickly crush said nuts while you crap your pants and fire your entire army at the Herald unit that you ultimately will fail to wound.

Wulfen Murderpack

Allows you to say ‘Wulfen Murderpack’ several times in an otherwise normal day.

Other than being complete murder machines in their own right, they bring their ‘Hunt and Kill’ tables into play for the Herald Wolfstar and the Thunderwolf unit. This means they can each potentially move twice and assault you turn 1 and definitely turn 2.

So what we have here is a Deathstar that is INCREDIBLY hard to wound that is INCREDIBLY fast on the tabletop and will also beat the living hell out of anything you put down on the table. Yes, you can attempt to ignore them but let’s not forget the equally fast Thunderwolf Cavalry unit barreling towards you or the three units of Wulfin looking for a snack. Now, there are certainly some downsides to this list, such as holding and securing backfield objectives but honestly Shayne can leave a unit of Wulfen in cover on an objective with 10 3+/5+FNP and any unit that comes back there to try to forcefully remove the unit will get torn to shreds. Hordes can be an issue for this army but in our game his Thunderwolf unit hit my fearless 30 man infantry squad and chewed threw them in two turns. Each Wulfen squad will do the same. As for the Deathstar itself, I can attest to how absolutely frustrated I was with each look out sir that was given to a 2+/6+ FNP Herald only to have them ignore the first wound that came in each shooting phase, which could be 3 D weapon shots.

So what do you think of this list? How do you counter something like this? Let me know in the comments section.

About Jason

Raw Dogger, aka, Phat J Sleaze (formerly of the Booty Boyzzz) is a highly opinionated, questionably skilled 40k enthusiast. When not working at Frontline Gaming, he can be found down on Jabroni Avenue.

>If they fail their first wound they ignore it due to the Formation’s special rule, including wounds from a D slap.

While this is true, do note that Destroyer weapons cause d3 wounds per hit in most cases (which can’t be negated with FNP), and thus a failed save will often still kill the model anyways.

The first-turn charge from the Thunderstar can be pretty backbreaking against some armies, but it’s definitely unreliable and Wulfen are fragile enough that some armies will simply go first and annihilate them before you can make use of their abilities. Like most deathstar strategies, it’s very risky. I also can’t say I’m a big fan of the Heralds of the Great Wolf, since they are unable to join any other units and are stuck moving at foot speed.

The Heralds can all buy either a Bike or a ThunderWolf, so they’re not stuck walking. Also the Iron Priest lets them ignore the first failed Save, not the first Wound.

That said, I think he’s screwing up the Iron Priest’s special Rule from the Formation. It says to ignore the first failed Save for “a Herald” in each Phase, not the first failed Save for “each Herald”. As usual with GW, it’s less clear than could be desired, but I’m pretty sure he can only stop one per Phase, not three.

Also, the FenWolves from the WGBLs mean that the whole thing is at majority 6+ Sv, which is hilarious against Grav.

“In addition, all models in the Formation lose the Independent Character special rule, but gain the following special rules and benefits whilst the relevant model from this Formation is still alive.”

The special rules from each of the Heralds confers to the others as long as the granter is alive, so regardless of whether or not it is ‘each herald’, you would ignore at least the first failed save for each of them.

Failed save vs wound makes a big difference there, yeah. But if you’re right about the “a herald” wording then that really doesn’t carry them very far, so they’ll still go squish pretty easily. And while they can buy mounts or bikes, they didn’t in this list.

Tweaking your save against Grav is cute, but it’s worth remembering that Centurions come with Hurricane Bolters as well- so they’ll probably fire those first, to kill off a couple of wolves and tip the balance, then open up with Grav.

You keep the Wolves in the middle if you’re expecting Grav. All the Hurricane Bolters go into dudes with 2+ or 3+ Svs and multiple Wounds. Barrage or a fair number of Precision Shots are pretty much the only way around it.

The exact wording of the formation is “in addition, all models lose the independent character special rule, but gain the following special rules and benefits while the relevant model from the formation is still alive.” I think it’s pretty clear that each model gets the benefit of each rule as long as the model with the rule (e.g iron priest and ignoring the first failed save) is still alive. Btw, I played this list and it is brutally fast. Exploiting the space wolves positioning is the best way at chipping at the weaker models.

It’s still the first failed Save by “A” Herald each phase, not the first failed Save by each. The “all models” bit just means that it can be any of the three who ignores it, not that they get to ignore three failed Saves collectively.

We are in agreement then. I thought you were arguing that only the iron priest had the ability to ignore the first failed save. I definitely do not see it saying that each herald can ignore the first failed save per model (e.g 3 if you LoS on to each one).

While it looks scary and can probably stomp most other deathstars, if you nuke the Wulfen off the table (not hard given their lower armor) then any MSU style army will probably just win via objectives. The army has no shooting so sacrificial transports could really slow it down.

Not sure on the rules for the Heralds since I haven’t really read the rules for the Spacewolves new stuff.

It looks mean but manageable, just don’t fire everything at the deathstar.

The problem with this one is you just can’t ignore it since it has a threat range of “table”. The unit will be in your face turn 1 or 2 and just straight demolish anything in it’s path, multi-charging jabronies all night long, son.

Yeah, as with most other deathstars the key is to cut its support out from under it, at which point it becomes a lot less scary. And mitigating its movement with terrain, blocking units, etc, is quite possible to do (though it is faster than most such units.)

I think he’s ignoring the first armor save/wounds wrong. But multiple d wounds might be the answer. D-scythes maybe? Could you flank with jet bikes or spiders to shoot into the side of the star? Tricky one anyway.

Also the majority army is 3+ not 6+ as it stands he has 9x 3+, 3x 4+, and 4x 6+. I tried a list like this a week or so ago…it did ok but it is too all in on one unit and doesn’t have a way of protecting the wulfen while still having them be viable as early as possible.

Sorry, Jason, but you got cheated big time (but probably accidentally). The list doesn’t work that way.

The Heralds of the Great Wolf must form their own unit and they lose the Independent Character status. Thus, that means no joining for the big, bad wolfstar for tanking shenanigans, though you can still enjoy their Re-roll 1st Turn/Seizing the Initiative bonuses. Might want to let your friend know.

The Herald of the Great Wolf characters form their own unit and lose their Independent Character status. Thus, they cannot join up with the big, bad wolfstar unit. You can enjoy their re-roll 1st Turn/+1 Seize bonuses but that is all. Might want to let your friend know.

The only thing that joined the heralds were two wgbl which are independent characters that can join the Heralds, the thunderwolf calvary dont join up with them they just do their own business, They are two separate squads Jy2

The D save on the Herald – if they roll a 6 – you don’t get any kind of save so no chance to make a save and thus a “failed” save – you just take it. So it won’t ignore that. But it would ignore all the other D roll’s that are not a 6 as the save is first and then you take d3 etc wounds.

Its for each herald – as long as that Iron priest stays alive. Once he dies they all lose that rule. I think the unit has some bite and the murder packs are nutty for murdering things. They hit so hard, die in the process, but a unit of 5 usually do a big dent to just about any death star out there.

Actually not true- the rulebook notes that if you are disallowed a save, it is considered to be the same as having failed the save. It’s just like if someone shoots a unit not in cover with a Plasmagun- each wound will result in a “failed save” even though no save is actually being rolled.

Hmmm. I can’t seem to find it in the book; I may be remembering a 6E rule, or it may be somewhere unintuitive. The FNP vs AP2 weapon example would still stand, though- I don’t think anyone would argue that taking the plasma wound when you’re in the open “isn’t a failed save.”

hey guys i doubled check Destroyer weapons and the wording on saving throws, IF i roll a 2-5 or a 6 on the destroyer table, its either d3 automatic wounds no saves of any kind allowed, or D6+6 wounds with no saves of any kind. so the ignore the first saving throw against the D doesnt apply because you dont get a saving throw